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By Jim ForsythREUTERS • Wednesday December 5, 2012 7:20 AM

About 800 residents of Doyline, La, will be able to return to their homes full-time on Thursday
or Friday, after the state clears out 6 tons of explosives that had been improperly stored at a
nearby company.

“We are progressing, working very hard to get this situation improved for them,” State Police
Capt. Doug Cain said.

Police said the people were evacuated from the northwestern Louisiana town on Friday after a
State Police trooper found a M6 propellant during an inspection of an industrial site used by Explo
Systems Inc. The smokeless substance is used for large ammunition.

The site is at the former Camp Minden Army Ammunition Plant.

Explo Systems demilitarizes outdated weapons and recovers the explosive material and propellant
so it can be reused, its website says.

The major danger is during daylight hours when the material is being moved, Cain said. People
are allowed to return to their residences after dark, and some are sleeping in their homes,
although Cain said they were being urged not to do so.

Cain said hazardous-materials experts set up a three-part plan. “First, we are shipping out the
propellant to customers who have already purchased it,” he said. “Then we are moving improperly
stored product into the magazine areas left empty by those shipments. Then we will segregate the
dangerous product into a smaller area, where it will not be a threat to the nearby residents.”

The material had been stored around the sprawling site instead of being kept in blast-proof
magazines. Police said some of the explosives were in boxes in the woods.A criminal investigation
is under way, and Explo is cooperating in the cleanup.